John Boehner, GOP Allies Expedite Bill To Kill Presidential Public Finance System.(The GOP's Campaign Finance "Sneak Attack")

On Wednesday, House Republicans plan to rush
to the floor a bill that would eliminate the federal
government's presidential financing system--in
the process, violating recent pledges by the
GOP's leadership of increased transparency and
debate in Congress. Not one hearing has been
held on the legislation, nor has a single commitee
debated its merits. If it passes, it will roll back
more than 30 years of law born out of the
Watergate scandal, eviscerating one of the few
remaining protections stopping corporations
from heavily influencing, if not outright buying,
American elections, reform experts say.

Democratic lawmakers and campaign finance
reformers blasted the bill, not only for seeking to
kill public financing but for breaking the GOP's
campaign promises on transparency and
accountability. "This is a sneak attack on the
system," says Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). "It's
a total break from their public pledge for
transparency and openness." Fred Wertheimer, a
longtime campaign finance reform advocate at
Democracy 21, called the bill "a gross abuse of the
legislative process."
House Republicans' much-touted "Pledge to
America" bashed Democrats for "limiting
openness and debate" during the legislative
process and vowed to "ensure that bills are
debated and discussed in the public square." The
Pledge says the GOP "will fight to ensure
transparency and accountability in Congress and
throughout government." And in House Speaker
John Boehner's first remarks after taking control
of Congress' lower chamber, he spoke of a
greater emphasis on "real transparency" and
"greater accountability." He went on, "Above all
else, we will welcome the battle of ideas,
encourage it, and engage in it —openly, honestly,
and respectfully."
Last week, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the majority
whip, announced with little fanfare the GOP's plan
to introduce and vote on the bill. The legislation to
repeal public financing was first floated in by Rep.
Tom Cole (R-Okla.) in June 2009. But it wasn't
until House Republicans added the elimination of
the Presidential Election Fund, as it's officially
called, to their "YouCut" initiative, an online list of
federal programs that citizens can vote in favor of
cutting, that the bill gained momentum. Cantor's
"YouCut" site claims that cutting the program,
which also funds party conventions, would save
$520 million over the next ten years.
A spokeswoman for Cantor declined to comment
beyond Cantor's announcement of the public
financing bill. A spokeswoman for Cole confirmed
that the bill has not been the subject of any
congressional hearings.
Public financing of presidential campaigns
provides matching tax dollars to the small
donations received by candidates who agree to
publicly finance their campaigns, instead of
relying on private donations. The intent is to
encourage small donations, and the burden on
taxpayers isn't much: Americans can voluntarily
contribute $3 to the fund on their federal tax
filings. The public finance system was created in
the aftermath of the Watergate scandal in the
mid-1970s. After President Richard Nixon's re-
election campaign was found to have illegally
accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from
big corporations, Congress created a public
financing system so that candidates wouldn't
have to rely on corporations and deep-pocketed
donors to finance their campaigns.
Since 1976, every Democratic and Republican
presidential candidate has used the public
financing system except Barack Obama's 2008
campaign. Obama opted out of the program and
instead raised $745 million from small and large
private donors and corporations, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics.
The way reformers see it, the presidential public
financing system needs repair, not repeal.
Meredith McGehee, policy director at the
Campaign Legal Center, says the amount of
public funds currently available to candidates is
too small to be competitive in modern
presidential races. She says lawmakers need to
update the system to better emphasize small
donations to candidates and raise the total
amount of public funding available. "Imagine if
you didn't make any changes to the tax code
since 1976. Of course public financing is
outdated. The issue, then, is not to get rid of, but
how to fix."
Legislation to make presidential public financing
more competitive has won support from both
parties in the past. In 2003, Sens. Russ Feingold
(D-Wisc.) of and John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced
a bill that would reform the public financing
system; Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and
Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) filed a companion bill in
the House. "The public financing system for
presidential elections, which aims to allow
candidates to run competitive campaigns without
becoming overly dependent on private donors, is
a system worth improving and preserving," the
lawmakers said in a joint statement.
More recently, Rep. David Price (D-NC) introduced
the Presidential Fund Act, which would notably
increase the funds available to candidates who
opt in to public financing. In 2007, when Price
introduced his bill, cosponsors included three
Republicans—Reps. Mike Castle of Delaware, Todd
Platts of Pennsylvania, and Shays. (Castle and
Shays no longer hold office.) Price offered the bill
again in 2010, and says he intends to offer it yet
again in the 112th Congress. As for the
Republicans' plan to gut public financing, Price
remarks that it "looks like the Republican Party
moving to toss red meat to the tea party."
Already good government groups and campaign
finance reformers are drumming up opposition
to the GOP's plan. Craig Holman, a lobbyist for
the public interest group Public Citizen, says his
organization and others like it will urge lawmakers
to oppose the GOP's bill because it violates the
GOP's transparency promises, both on the 2010
campaign trail and now as the House majority.
"This just came out of the blue, has had no
deliberation and no discussion within the
Republican and Democratic conferences," Holman
says. "They have just been seated and they're
already breaking the ground rules on how they'll
do business."



Source: Http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/24/gop-campaign-finance_n_813012.html